I, like many bloggers and critics (but not nearly enough viewers), am an avid fan of AMC’s Mad Men. The balance between gritty HBO-style series and Sirkian melodrama is delicately struck, and it’s a pleasure to watch.

However, with tawdry office sex and button-down social politics taking up most of the screen time, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the show’s centerpiece: advertising. It’s clear Weiner and company aren’t as distracted as we are; they are hyper-aware of the ad man’s role in shaping the mass culture of the 1960’s. The casually placed McLuhan references make that obvious enough.